ArborGen Enhances Reforestation Expertise with Strategic New Hires

Friday, March 29, 2013

Dr. Rafael de la Torre

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Jason Watson

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Chris Rosier

ArborGen, the world leader in reforestation, today announced the expansion of its sales, marketing and product development team with the additions of Dr. Rafael de la Torre in forest planning and finance, Jason Watson in sales, and Chris Rosier in product development. Collectively, the three new hires bring over 50 years of forestry experience to ArborGen.“We are very pleased to welcome Rafael, Jason and Chris to the ArborGen team. All three individuals bring an impressive track record and unique expertise that will help advance the company’s commercial growth while expanding our reforestation capabilities,” said John Pait, vice president of sales, marketing and product development of ArborGen. “The previous year has included some very important milestones for ArborGen with the acquisition of CellFor and its industry leading Varietal Pine assets. These gentlemen will complement our talented team of nursery professionals and skilled scientists, which include four with doctorates in quantitative genetics.”Dr. de la Torre comes to ArborGen with 25 years of progressive work experience in global forestry, including forest finance, procurement, planning, wood quality, wood processing and reforestation. In his role as planning and analysis manager for ArborGen, Dr. de la Torre’s responsibilities include assessing the value of Varietal and Mass Control Pollinated® (MCP) Pine plantations. He will also evaluate new market opportunities and provide analytic support and asset valuation for capital investments. Dr. de la Torre most recently worked as a manager of planning and analysis at CellFor Inc. Having authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles and white papers for forestry journals and magazines, Dr. de la Torre is an internationally-recognized financial forest markets expert. Dr. de la Torre received both his Masters and Doctorate from the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia.Watson has over 15 years of experience in seedling sales, reforestation support and forestry management and will serve as a Piedmont regional sales coordinator for ArborGen. Watson joins ArborGen from International Forest Company, a containerized seedling company where he served as a sales manager. In addition, Watson previously served as eastern regional manager in business development for CellFor Inc., seedling sales manager at Weyerhauser Company, staff consulting forester with Tigrett, Inc., and assistant block manager for Anderson-Tully Company. Watson graduated from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in forestry.Rosier has over 12 years of experience in tree improvement, product development, marketing and operations in the forest products industry. He will serve as a Pine breeding project leader out of ArborGen’s Tallahassee, Fla., operations, where he will oversee the breeding, testing, selection and production of Loblolly and Slash Pine seedlings. Prior to joining ArborGen, he served as product development and marketing manager at International Forest Company. Previously, he worked for CellFor Inc. for four years where he held positions as a nursery quality and development manager and a nursery operations manager. Prior to Cell For, he worked in tree improvement as a seed orchard manager with Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation. Rosier holds a B.S. in both Environmental Science and Natural Resources and a Master of Science in tree improvement/christmas tree genetics from North Carolina State University.

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